With 12 days until the election, the fists, well, fliers, are coming out. And in some cases, these fliers are just downright entertaining. Here is the latest one sent by Betty Tom Chu – who dropped the Tom for this election – attacking Judy Chu.

(If you have recently received a flier from any candidate, send it in and we’ll get it on the blog.)

Sen. Gil Cedillo is getting quite a (negative) reaction from the recent round of mailers he sent out attacking 32nd Congressional Candidate Emanuel Pleitez, the 26-year-old from East Los Angeles.

Dante Atkins, the Political Director of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats, which endorsed Cedillo, writes (if you go to the Web site, scroll down to the May 6 post) that he doesn’t think it’s a good sign for Cedillo’s campaign that he is going after a “minor candidate.”

Atkins, who is also 26, also is offended that Cedillo’s mailer seems to be knocking Pleitez for being young and using the Internet like many young people do.

He concludes by saying, “This is really a low blow, and smacks of desperation to have to resort to this.”

Cedillo grabbed some photos from Pleitez’s Facebook page, like this one:

President of the Center for Governmental Studies Robert Stern called for more restrictions in a story written by Rebecca Kimitch that shows Sen. Gil Cedillo’s staffers have used a loophole in campaign finance laws that allows Cedillo to buy gifts with campaign donations.

Cedillo is running for the 32nd Congressional seat.

From the story:

Cedillo and key members of his legislative staff annually exchange gifts during the holidays, staff members have said. But while the staff members pay for their gifts to the state senator themselves, Cedillo uses contributions from donors to buy his staff members’ gifts.

According to public records, Cedillo has spent nearly $15,000 of campaign contributions over the past six years at Banana Republic, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Ann Taylor and a handful of other high-end retail stores.

Cedillo said all of the purchases were gifts for his legislative and political staff, as well as other lawmakers.

Daniel Savage, Cedillo’s chief of staff, said he has regularly received gifts from Cedillo – a shirt and tie every year for Christmas. Savage, who has known Cedillo for decades, said he reciprocates with the same.

“(Cedillo) is using his campaign funds as a supplement to his income,” said Robert Stern, president of the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies and former general counsel for the Fair Political Practices Commission. “When I give gifts, exchange gifts, it’s out of my own pocket… The staffer has to use personal funds for his gift to (Cedillo).”

I was wondering just how Sen. Gil Cedillo would be combating Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s endorsement of Board of Equalization Chairwoman Judy Chu.

And then I got a press release from Cedillo’s media reps reminding us that it is the voters, not endorsements, that will decide the winner of the 32nd Congressional eat, left open after Hilda Solis took the job as Obama’s labor secretary.

This release follows a press conference today where Villaraigosa formally announced his endorsement of Chu. The photo to the left was taken at the 108th annual Golden Dragon Parade.

The Cedillo press release goes on:

It was Gil Cedillo, Supervisor Gloria Molina and Senator Gloria Romero who stood up to Villaraigosa and the other L.A. politicians and said there would be no Proposition R unless the San Gabriel Valley got its fair share of the proceeds. The efforts of Senator Cedillo and his allies were successful and thanks to them, there are 1.8 billion dollars allocated to local transportation projects that benefit San Gabriel Valley families.

Gil Cedillo is a proven leader who has taken on those big money special interests for years to help workers get better wages and benefits. He took care of the people of the San Gabriel Valley when Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. powerbrokers wanted to take their tax dollars and literally send it down a hole under Wilshire Boulevard.

By standing beside Antonio Villaraigosa today, Judy Chu has shown that she will cozy up to the entrenched political interests, the C-E-Os and wealthy campaign contributors and take care of their interests in Congress instead of putting the hard working families of the San Gabriel Valley first.”

Mayor to be Joined by San Gabriel Valley Elected Officials at Special Press Event

EL SERENO – The Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, will be joined by his counterparts from Azusa, West Covina, South El Monte, Duarte and scores of other San Gabriel Valley elected officials on Wednesday as he officially announces his endorsement of Judy Chu in the race for the 32nd Congressional District seat recently vacated by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

The event, which will include just a fraction of the more than 75 elected officials from the San Gabriel Valley who have already endorsed Judy Chu, will feature statements from Mayor Villaraigosa and other mayors and mayors pro tem from the San Gabriel Valley